[sdiy] Moving to Surface Mount - lots of questions

[Mike Beauchamp]

Hey all,
after assembling a few PCB's with a few hundred resistors, I've been
thinking about moving to Surface Mount for my next project. Please
convince me, or talk me out of it :)

I've watched a few videos of people using stencils to apply solder
paste, placing the components, and then oven-heating the boards. That
looks like it would be pretty fast to assemble, but I do have some
questions for the experts:

Speed: Having never done it before, how much faster is it to
stencil-place-oven as opposed to insert-solder-clip?
Reliability: I know that repairing a through-hole board is easier for
most people, but is the reliability of SMT stuff on par with TH?
Storage: Those SMD resistors are tiny! What are some good ways to
store 30-40 different values so they can easily be grabbed for
populating?
Toxicity: Soldering irritates my asthma, although my fume extractor
helps heaps. Does sticking solder paste into an oven cause similar
fumes?

Looking forward to reading your responses, thanks all.

-- 
[mike]